A brochure from before 1954 (when Truitt passed away) notes that the cave’s underground dining room is “a delightful place to enjoy eating. So he named the attraction after himself.”(His prediction wasn't correct - he later went on to develop Mystery and Wonder Caves, both of which are also in McDonald County.)īlack’s usage of the cave as a restaurant isn’t a new concept: It’s been in food service on and off since it opened in 1940. “Everyone was certain it was his last cave,” wrote Weaver in “Missouri the Cave State,” which was published in 1980. I don’t know that it made him a lot of money, but it kept him going.”Truitt had a reputation for his caves that was known nationwide. An article in a California newspaper in 1932 even reported that Truitt 'claims the title of original and only true caveman of the Ozarks underworld.”But when Truitt opened his namesake cavern at 76 years old, he believed that his caving days would soon come to a close. Over the next few decades, Truitt discovered and worked to transform more than six caves into tourist attractions.'He would develop a cave, run it for a while and try to get it built up, and then he would sell it,' says Weaver. Then, one day, he found it: His first cave, which he developed and eventually named Ozark Wonder Cave. He liked caves.”Weaver’s research reveals that Truitt tried to make money a variety of ways after moving to Noel - even going so far as looking for buried treasure in his back yard. 'I guess he got a summer job there, and it just clicked for him. Dwight Weaver, cave enthusiast, author and former public information officer for the Department of Natural Resources’ geological division. 'Dad' Truitt - the cavern's first developer - was known as “Cave Man of the Ozarks.' He came to Noel with his wife, Lenah, in 1914, but his love of caves stretched back to his youth when he was a guide at Cave of the Winds in Colorado.'That’s where he got his real early interest in caves,' says H. Although the establishment is known as The Cave Bar & Grill these days, for most of its existence it was simply Truitt’s Cave.J.A. When Black bought the McDonald County cave, he wasn’t just acquiring a piece of property: He was investing in history. He still believes the collapse is coming: But until then, just look for him in the back. “And after that, I sat around and looked and was like, ’OK, I’ve got to do something,’” he says.And that’s how Black used his cave to get into the restaurant business. But when the collapse didn’t come, the bills still did - and it didn’t take long before Black needed to make some cash. Department of Defense, and said goodbye to his longtime girlfriend, Teresa, who decided to stay behind.'I didn’t leave her, but I said, ‘alright, I’m going,'' recalls Black. “I pretty much came out on my own, and linked up with a bunch of people that I didn’t know.'Then they waited. He quit his job as an IT specialist with the U.S. And it’s been perpetuated for over 500 years.”Such feelings, accented by a belief that societal collapse was coming in November 2011, caused him to leave his life in Indiana and move to Missouri. “I don’t know what exactly realm we live on, but what the powers that be are telling us, I believe is a lie.

You’re hit with all of these realities of things you thought were something totally different then what you’re being told they are.”For Black, some of those things involve NASA, 9/11 and even the shape of the earth.“No, I don’t believe we live on a spinning ball at this point in time,” he says. “One of the first things you go through is fear when you start seeing all these things. Despite its dark and dreariness, it was a place in which to take refuge a safe haven from a world that he felt was on the brink of collapse.“The term is ‘waking up’ to things,” says Black of his beliefs.

LANAGAN - Chris Black came to the Ozarks to live in a cave. Today, he owns the restaurant - and a herd of goats. When it didn't, he turned his hideaway into a bar and grill. In 2011, Chris Black bought a cave in McDonald County because believed that society was destined to collapse.

The cave bar and grill lanagan mo